Store owner Nagi Aldhahiri said he had no trouble with criminal activity outside his store on the corner of 14th and Peralta after a visit from "The Riders." The extra force, says Aldhahiri, is worth the security. Chronicle photo by Kendra Luck

Photo: CHRONICLE

Store owner Nagi Aldhahiri said he had no trouble with criminal...

Image 2 of 4

The corner 14th and Peralta is considered the center of West Oakland and ground zero for the four Oakland police officers known as "The Riders," who are under investigation for misconduct . Chronicle photo by Kendra Luck

Photo: CHRONICLE

The corner 14th and Peralta is considered the center of West...

Image 3 of 4

A police car drives down Myrtle Street in West Oakland. Chronicle photo by Kendra Luck

A police car drives down Myrtle Street in West Oakland. Chronicle...

Image 4 of 4

Oakland Crime Statistics. Chronicle Graphic

Oakland Crime Statistics. Chronicle Graphic

Oakland Reins In Its Rough `Riders' / In a tough neighborhood, four cops pushed the limits while ruling their beat with an iron fist

2000-10-02 04:00:00 PDT OAKLAND -- Nagi Aldhahiri doesn't smile when he calls the corner market he runs in the heart of West Oakland "my little stop'n'rob." He's lost count of the times thieves have ripped him off in just the past three months.

The way Aldhahiri sees it, cops like Francisco "Choker" Vazquez are the only reason he's still alive to turn a buck in a neighborhood where life can be cheaper than a boarded-up Victorian.

"There was one very bad time in the summer when I told these guys in front of my store, 'Stop stealing things, stop dealing drugs in my doorway,' and they just laughed," said Aldhahiri as he tended the register at his State Market on 14th and Peralta streets one recent evening. "Then Officer Vazquez came by, and one of those guys started fighting with another one, right here in my store.

"The policeman picked this man up by the throat with one hand and held him off the floor like this," Aldhahiri said, thrusting his arm as high as he could, eyes growing wide at the memory. "After that, no more trouble. At least from those guys."

In poverty-pocked West Oakland, where new gentrification rubs up against open-air crack deals and nightly gunshots, neighbors and shopkeepers say it takes tough cops to do a tough job. And in the past decade, few in blue were tougher than the police officers who dubbed themselves "The Riders" -- a four- man, night-shift crew led by 43-year- old veteran Officer Vazquez that patrolled West Oakland.

But city leaders and some citizens now say the cops went too far, possibly veering into the very criminal behavior that they were supposed to stamp out as the city cracks down on crime under Mayor Jerry Brown.

Oakland Police Chief Richard Word, whose department has been investigating the officers for two months, last week recommended that the Riders be fired for allegedly beating up suspects, planting evidence and falsifying police reports. The chief also wants to demote their sergeant for not keeping a firm enough hand on his troops.

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

The Alameda County district attorney's office, meanwhile, may announce within two weeks whether the officers will face criminal charges. Prosecutors already have dismissed a handful of cases involving Vazquez, and public defenders are wary of drug cases in which he and two other Riders were involved, sources say.

The probes so far have turned up no other serious misconduct in the 725-officer force, sources say. But last week's allegations are the worst to hit the reform-minded department in years.

One victim says he was beaten by the four officers, then driven to a remote spot and beaten again while in handcuffs, according to sources familiar with the cases. Another says a Rider hit him so hard that the blow dislocated his shoulder. One man accuses an officer of paying him for information with a rock of crack cocaine, and others say drugs were planted on them as false evidence.

Reaction so far has been split.

Some residents and community organizations say the case highlights the need for more safeguards against officers brutalizing the powerless. They question how four cops, each with a history of complaints against him even before the current probe began, could apparently rampage unchecked for so long.

"There is more behavior like this in that department, you can count on it," said longtime West Oakland community leader Paul Cobb. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."

On the other hand, there are those like Aldhahiri who are willing to abide some extra force in the name of protection and some rank- and-file cops who say they are being pushed too hard, too fast.

"What everyone fails to realize is what cops have to deal with in places like West Oakland," said one officer who has made several busts with all four Riders. "I mean, you want to know what hell is, you go there after dark. Your only friend is the guy in the car next to you."

The Riders -- Vazquez; Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag, 35; Jude Siapno, 32; and Matt Hornung, 28 -- have refused to talk with investigators or The Chronicle about the accusations. Their alleged victims also are staying mum.

The four -- veterans of about 10 years except for Hornung, who has two years of service -- were turned in to their supervisors in late July by a 23-year-old rookie cop working with them. That officer, who has left the department, has declined interview requests.

"It doesn't surprise me that he would bring it forward -- it takes a lot of courage," said Sacramento police Officer Paul Curtis, 25, who studied criminal justice with the rookie at California State University at Sacramento.

Curtis said he would have done the same thing. "What looks worse, a corrupt police department or a corrupt police department that covers it up?"

TOUGH IMAGES

That the Riders were fearsome to criminals is without doubt.

Vazquez, reportedly dubbed "Choker" for his subduing skills, is a former gang unit officer. Mabanag, a former narcotics officer nicknamed "Batman," allegedly attacked Oakland resident Sean Louden with another officer in 1992 after a car chase in what Oakland attorney John Burris called "a most vicious beating."

Siapno won first place in the intermediate boxing division at last year's World Police and Fire Games in Stockholm.

Siapno and Mabanag each shot and killed a suspect in separate incidents.

Hornung, who graduated from California State University at Chico and worked at an Enterprise Rent-A- Car in Milpitas, was accused of choking a member of the rhythm- and-blues group Tony!Toni!Tone! in March 1999.

"You see Choker or Batman come down the street, you go the other way," said one young crack dealer they busted in the past year. "Last time I saw them they threw me up against the wall, called me a ho, and drove me to the BART station and beat the hell out of me and my brother."

All four officers have been the subject of federal civil rights lawsuits and citizen complaints, records show. The city has paid $200,000 to settle suits involving Siapno and Mabanag, while lawsuits are pending against Vazquez and Hornung.

Keith Davis, a Richmond man arrested by Siapno last year, said he is still astounded by the savagery with which the officer seized him. Davis had argued with roommates of an ex-girlfriend -- who then called police -- and he was waiting in his car while a friend went back to the house to offer apologies.

"Suddenly Siapno and a couple other cops surround me and yell at me to get out of the car," said Davis, 38. "Siapno's thing was to come on like a gorilla dog -- he didn't want to hear anything from me about what I was doing, he just yanked me around and handcuffed me."

A charge of disturbing the peace was dropped against Davis, who filed a complaint with the city's civilian police review board. Siapno was not disciplined.

DEPARTMENT SHAKEUP

The city's police chief and the mayor are making no excuses for the officers' alleged offenses. Brown made crime reduction one of his top four goals when he took office in January 1999, and he and Word say that goal extends to both sides of the badge.

They are vowing to root out any misconduct problems with the same vigor Brown showed when he, in one of his first big initiatives as mayor, forced out six-year Police Chief Joseph Samuels Jr. and replaced him with Word, 38, a former narcotics cop who had worked up through the ranks.

Since taking his post, Word has worked with Brown and City Manager Robert Bobb on "geographic accountability" and real-time crime analysis, taking their cue from New York's successful crime-fighting program. Up-to-date statistics are used to pinpoint crime hot spots -- and police commanders are held accountable for reducing crime in their areas. As a result of the Riders investigation, Word has added complaints against cops to his weekly reviews with commanders.

However, Rashidah Grinage, member of the police-monitoring People United for a Better Oakland, said the emphasis on crime reduction is partly to blame for the alleged tactics of the Riders. Last week PUEBLO and other community groups called for a probe of the entire department by an "independent investigator."

"Every time people say (we'll reduce crime) by any means necessary, police are given a green light to trample people's civil rights," said Grinage, 58, whose husband and son were killed in a 1993 police confrontation that also left an officer dead. "They know they will have political cover because they are serving the interests of the mayor."

Brown called such accusations "just silly."

"No one is being given any inducement or even slight encouragement to violate the rights of citizens," he said. "It's always sad when these kind of serious allegations are made. We know we have human beings on the force. Things like this happen all over the country."

Police-watch groups also complain that Word has not kept his promise of "zero tolerance" for police misconduct. When potential problem cops are rooted out by the department's "early warning system," they say the recommended training and counseling are voluntary. While Word said three-fourths of officers comply with the system, he agrees it should be mandatory and he is working with the police union to make that happen.

Grinage and others have also been pushing for changes to strengthen the city's Citizens' Police Review Board, which they say is understaffed and ineffective.

More than 300 complaints were filed against officers last year, but the vast majority are investigated internally by the police department. Last year, the department sustained just four of the 188 allegations of excessive force lodged against it.

The civilian board -- which held hearings on just 12 cases last year -- has jurisdiction only over excessive force and improper procedure complaints. Advocates are pushing for that to be expanded to include all citizen complaints.

TROUBLED AREA

While the policies and procedures are debated, the Riders accusations have roiled afresh emotions always simmering near the surface in West Oakland, a 20,000-soul stretch of gritty neighborhoods.

A haven for shipbuilding workers in World War II, West Oakland became a crime-ridden land after the war, known mostly as the place where Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton was gunned down over a bad crack deal in 1989, two months before the Loma Prieta earthquake flattened the Cypress Freeway.

In the 1990s, things began to improve as demolition of the freeway and a high-tech boom spurred renovations of the old Victorians. On an average day now, police cars aren't a constant presence. Several officers were seen last week going out of their way to chat up kids and create a harmonious atmosphere as they drove through.

Still, it remains a place where a person walks warily at night, where police response times for mundane requests can stretch past two hours, and where the gangs battle openly with semiautomatic weapons. If four cops took things too far, it would figure, some say, given the environment.

"I grew up here, and the cops have always treated us like we're in a German Nazi camp, right here in our own streets," Jacqueline Tillman, a 44-year-old mother of seven, said as she stood at Eighth and Center streets near where Newton died in 1989. "I've seen them tape off dead bodies around here in front of these neighborhood stores, and then let people walk right past the bodies into the market before the blood is dry on the sidewalk."

One officer who has worked with the Riders said nobody in uniform condones what they are said to have done. But that doesn't mean they should automatically be condemned.

"These guys are awesome cops, they never did anything to anybody who was innocent, just pukes, criminals, see?" said the officer. "They just got a little too intense and went over the line."

If the Riders are drummed out of the force, it will send the wrong message, the officer said. "You know who's going to lose in this thing? The citizens. The killers and the drug dealers are going to know that they get that much more of a free hand now in West Oakland.

"This may sound crazy -- but those four guys were getting the job done, just about the only way you can in a place like that."

He'll get no argument from State Market owner Aldhahiri. Or even from some other longtime West Oakland residents like 64-year-old Veloise Dixon, a registered nurse who has seen the Riders quell more than a few scuffles.

"What these men did was nothing racial, they are just tough men who feel threatened in this environment and did what they thought was necessary," Dixon said as she nursed a drink at a party for her charity club, Ladies of Distinction, at Esther's Orbit Room nightclub on Seventh Street. "The only thing the bad people understand is force, and Vazquez -- he's not mean. He's just 'bad' when he needs to be.

"Sometimes I think we need more cops like them," she said with a sigh. "But . . . oh, I don't know."

OAKLAND CRIME STATISTICS
Major crimes have declined
in the past year in West Oakland, the patrol area for four police
officers who are under investigation for alleged criminal conduct.
The following crimes were reported in West Oakland and the city
as a whole during June and July -- the two months before the
officers, who called themselves "The Riders," were placed
on leave -- and are compared with crimes during the same period
in 1999.
Homicide
Citywide West Oakland
'99 16 3
'00 15 2
.
Assault, With and without firearms
Citywide West Oakland
'99 277 51
'00 239 40
.
Rape
Citywide West Oakland
'99 46 5
'00 41 5
.
Robbery, Armed and residential
Citywide West Oakland
'99 309 44
'00 289 22
Burglary, Commercial and residential
Citywide West Oakland
'99 784 76
'00 491 33
Note: Drug arrest statistics unavailable
Source: City of Oakland
Chronicle Graphic